Here is part of the account of today’s commemoration, from the Protoevangelium of James: ‘When the child turned three, Joachim said, “Let us call the pure women of the Hebrews. Let them take up lamps and light them so that the child will not turn back and her heart will never be led away from the temple of the Lord”.  And they did these things until they went up to the temple of the Lord. And the priest welcomed her. Kissing her, he blessed her and said, “The Lord God has magnified your name for all generations; through you the Lord will reveal deliverance to the children of Israel in the last days”. And he set her down on the third step of the altar and the Lord God poured grace upon her’.

The childhood of the Mother of God is as precious to us as her later life – for its purity, its integrity. May we too follow that path in our own lives, a path of purity and integrity, and may God bless you this day.